Of the
major religions
the most recent inventions are Christianity followed by Islam
(Muhammad's
invention about 610 AD).

Christianity
copied
and embodied almost all from the Heathen/Pagan religions features and
rituals,
claiming at the same time ownership:

1. The
virgin birth.

2.
Trinity.

3. Holy
Ghost.

4.
Miracles – like
raising the dead, walking on water, etc.

5.
Baptism.

6. Divine
Word.

7.
Atonement for sins.

8.
Disciples.

9.
Eucharist.

10.
Commandments to
followers.

11.
Saving a sinful
world by the god-man's death, going down into hell after dying for
three days
(The standard requirement was three days for all saviors to be dead.)
Then
rising from the dead and going up into heaven.

The myth
of world
creators / world saviors goes back to the Heathen/ Pagan religions,
thousands
of years before Christianity. Listed below are some of these supreme
gods, with
country.

17. Manibozho – god who created
earth and mortals
from clay
(Algonquin Indians)

18. Marduk – supreme god / sun god
(Babylon)

19. Maui
– son of the sun (Polynesian)

20. Pachacamac – supreme god,
creator of all (Yuncas, Lima,
Peru)

21. Parica – god who flooded the
earth (before Noah)
(Peru)

22. Rado Gast – god of
sun (Slav)

23. Tengri – god of sky (Mongol)

24. Anunnaki – sky god (Sumerian)

25. Ptar – creator god (Egypt)

26. Neteru – sky god (Egypt)

26. Hurakan – creator god (Mexico
/ Central America)

27.
Yahweh – god
invented by the Jews in the 6th century BC; also known as Elohim,
Baalim,
Adonai, Yhwh, Ieue, Jehovah
(Jewish)

28. Allah
– invented
by Muhammed in the 5th century
AD (Islam)

"…And
that inverted
bowl we call the sky, where under crawling coop't
we
live and die, lift not thy hands to it for help, for it rolls
impotently on as
thou and I." Omar Khayyam

Brian de Kretser

Institute
for Research
into Religions,

Darwin, Australia.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF
RELIGION

Part 3

(Investigator 128,
2009 September)

Christianity copied
everything from Heathen/Pagan myths recycled down the ages.
Christianity
falsely claims that Jesus Christ was the one and only crucified savior
of the
world. But historical records show that there were many crucified
saviors from
thousands of years before the Christian era. Jesus Christ was the last
of about
23 earlier crucified saviors.

They are listed below
with country and approximate dates:

1.
Osiris (Egypt
- 3000bc)

13.
Iao (Nepal
- 622bc)

2.
Bel (Babylon
- 1750bc)

14.
Sakia (India
- 600bc)

3.
Atys (Phrygia, Turkey
- 1700bc)

15.
Alcestos - Female god (Pherae,
Greece
- 600bc)

4.
Thulis (Egypt
- 1700bc)

16.
Mithra (Persia
- 600bc)

5.
Krishna (India
- 1200bc)

17.
Quexalcote (Mexico
- 587bc)

6.
Crite (Chaldea, Babylon
- 1200bc)

18.
Wittoba (Travancore,
India
552bc)

7.
Tammuz (Syria
- 1160bc)

19.
Prometheus (Greece
- 547bc)

8.
Dionysius (Greece
- 1100bc)

20.
Ixion (Rome
- 400bc)

9.
Hesus (Celtic Druid - 834bc)

21.
Devatat (Siam
- ?)

10.
Quirinius (Rome
- 753bc)

22.
Apollonius (Tyana, Cappadocia
- ?)

11.
Indra (Tibet
- 725bc)

23.
Jesus Christ
(Jewish - 33ad) - The last recorded
crucified savior

12.
Bali (Orissa, India
- 725bc)

It was a case of "My
God is better than yours." There seems to have been boundless
competition
between the disciples of the various religions, including Jews, Pagans,
Christians, etc. as to which god-man could do whatever better or whose
god
could out perform all others in achieving astonishing prodigies that
could set
the laws of nature at defiance. Religions in each era added attributes
to their
deities so that they could claim that their god was far greater
than any
previous god.

Krishna
(Hindu
god 1200bc)
compared to Jesus (Christian god 33ad) were both the 2nd
part of
their respective trinity.

Several historians
have found 346 points of comparison between these two although 1200
years
apart. It's not hard to see that the Krishna
myth was grafted almost in total to the Jesus myth.

It must also be
pointed out that the Krishna myth was
also
recycled from earlier god myths, Osris –
3000bc, Bel – 1750bc, Atys
– 1700 bc, Thulis
– 1700bc. And so it goes on.

The advent of each
savior was miraculously foretold by prophets.

Both came to save a
sinful world.

Both are considered
divine saviors.

Both taught that
atoning for sins a necessity.

In each case as a "son
of god" is selected as sacrifice for atonement. (Second person of the
Trinity)

Both are sent down
from heaven in the form of a man.

Both are born of a
holy virgin – Krishna of Maia, Jesus of
Mary. Both born in obscure situations.

Both had a miraculous
conception.

Both had adopted
earthly fathers, both fathers carpenters.

Both claimed that god
was their real father, with conception by a holy
ghost or spirit.

Both claimed royal
descent. Both born on 25th December.

Both visited by wise
men and shepherds led by a star.

With both an incumbent
ruler wants to kill him, but both saved by angel warnings.

Parents flee to
safety, Krishna's to Mathura,
Jesus' to Egypt.

Each had a forerunner, Krishna had Bali Rama, Jesus had John
the Baptist.

Both were very clever
when young, teaching learned opponents.

Both fasted and
meditated in the wilderness.

Both deliver sermons
and moral lessons. Both claimed to be without sin. Both forgave sins
and had a mission to deliver the world from sin, by destroying the
devil and all his works.

Both proclaim "I am
the resurrection" "The way to the father" "Son of God", etc.

Both were regarded as
the "Lord from Heaven" "Lord of Lords" and both claimed to be
omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omni-everything.

Both performed
miracles, cure the sick, blind, lame, walk on water, raise the dead,
cast out devils, etc.

Both had disciples,
apostles following them and spreading their master's religion.

Both opposed the
priesthood and the established religion, and made enemies who plotted.

Both had a memorable
"Last Supper".

Both put to death by
crucifixion with thieves on either side of them also crucified.

Darkness and strange
happenings accompanied each crucifixion.

Each forgave their
enemies before dying; both gave up the ghost and descended into hell.

Both remained "dead"
for 3 days (standard requirement).

Both rose from the
dead on the 3rd day and was seen
by a selected few.

Both ascend into
Heaven, supposedly witnessed by many.

Brian de Kretser

Institute for Research
into Religions,

Darwin, N.T. Australia.

A Brief Delusion

(Investigator 129,
2009 November)

In Investigator
#128 Brian De Krester provided his 3rd
part on the Brief
History of Religion. In that article he repeated his assertion that
Christianity copied pagan religions. He listed 22 "crucified saviours"
who
preceded Christ. As usual, Brian does not provide any evidence or
references to
support his claim, so should we believe him?

His list
dates from 3,000 BC (Osiris). Crucifixion
probably
originated with the Persians during the reign of Darius (550 to 485
BC). He is
recorded to have crucified 3,000 Babylonian captives in 519 BC
(Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1993, Vol.3, p.762). Brian's list includes at least 17
crucified
saviours that preceded the origin of crucifixion. So most of his list
is
complete hogwash.

I am not
going to critique all of his claims. The onus is on Brian to provide
the
evidence. However, I will cite some examples.

1)
Number 1 was Osiris. Osiris was
not crucified. Osiris'
brother Seth envied his power and popularity and killed him by luring
him into
a coffin, which he sealed with lead.

2)
Number 17 was Quexalcote
from Mexico.
Give us a break, Brian. How could the NT writers copy something from Mexico?
Columbus
sailed the ocean
blue in 1492. The NT writers wouldn't have known that Mexico
existed.
Surely in this case Brian has shot himself in the foot. This example
merely
demonstrates that a similarity does not necessarily mean that any
copying has
occurred.

3)
Number 22 was Appolonius.
Brian didn't give a date. It is likely that Appolonius
was born after Jesus. Most biographical information about Appolonius
is derived from Philostratus who wrote his
biography
about 150 years after the 1st NT writings, so who copied
who?
Anyway, Appolonius was not crucified. He
disappeared
from the courtroom.

I believe
I have given enough examples to show that it would be an understatement
to say
that Brian's assertions are unreliable.

Most
religions address the basic problems of our existence, which are evil,
suffering and death. Thus it is not surprising that religions have some
common
elements. The solution to evil must entail some form of judgement.
Death must
be overcome by some form of afterlife. This, combined with the fact
that there
is an enormous volume of ancient religious literature, means that it is
quite
easy to find similarities without there being any causal connection.

The
copycat thesis was popular among sceptical theologians during the
1920s. During
this period Rudolph Bultmann and C.H. Dodd
each
compiled lists of 300 parallels between pagan religions and the Christ
story.
The problem was that they only had 8% overlap. What this demonstrated
was that
the selection of parallels is highly subjective. It is more the product
of a
vivid imagination.

The huge
number of claimed "dead ringer" parallels is in itself a cause for
suspicion.
For example, Brian claimed Jesus is a copy of Krishna,
but Laurie Eddie claimed Jesus is a copy of Mithra
(Issue #87, also without any evidence). Mithra
and Krishna are different. Who is
right, if either? "Many
testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree"
(Mark
14:56).

It is
very easy to construct historical parallels that look convincing on the
surface, but in fact have no causal link. For example, the following
table
lists similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

Abraham
Lincoln

John F
Kennedy

Abraham Lincoln was
elected to Congress in 1846

John F Kennedy was
elected to Congress in 1946

Abraham Lincoln won
his presidential election in 1860

John F Kennedy's won
his presidential election in 1960

Abraham Lincoln was
assassinated on "Friday" & was shot in the head

John F Kennedy's was
also assassinated on "Friday" & was shot in the head

Lincoln's assassin was "John
Wilkes Booth" and he had a 3 word name with 15 letters

John F Kennedy's
successor was also named Vice-President Johnson (Lyndon B. Johnson)

Andrew Johnson was
born on Thursday December 29 1808

Lyndon B Johnson was
born on Thursday August 27 1908

Abraham Lincoln's son
(Edward Barker Lincoln 1850) died while he served in the White House

John F Kennedy's
newborn son (Patrick Bouvier Kennedy 1963)
died while he served in the White House

If you
believe there is a causal link between Abraham Lincoln and John F
Kennedy, then
I feel sorry for you. Rather, this example illustrates how easy it is
to construct
dodgy parallels.

The notion that the
New Testament writers copied pagan
religions to construct the story of Jesus Christ is psychologically
implausible. Apart from Luke, the New Testament writers were pious Jews
(and
Luke was probably a "God fearer"). The Jews despised the idolatry of
pagan
religions and opposed any form of syncretism.

In addition, the New
Testament writers were too
preoccupied with integrating the Christ story with the Old Testament to
be
bothered with copying pagan religions. In fact sceptical theologians no
longer
pursue the pagan copycat theory and have gone in a different direction.
While
conservative theologians assert that Jesus is the fulfilment of the OT,
sceptical theologians, such as Bishop "Jack" Spong,
assert that the Christ story was contrived to fit the OT prophecies.

One post-modern
critique of Christianity is against
its uniqueness. After all, "Don't most religions teach the same sort of
things?" However, the similarities are peripheral and break down on
closer
examination, just as, "All Asians look the same", unless of course you
are an
Asian.

Christianity
is unique in a number of ways, such as:

1)
The Jewish faith, on
which Christianity is based, was
the first major instance of monotheism. All of the examples that Brian
provided
were from polytheistic religions.

2)
Christianity is based
on falsifiable claims about
historical events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth. If Jesus was not
crucified,
killed and then raised to life, then Christianity is stripped of all
meaning.
By contrast, all other major religions propose a system of beliefs or
way of
life that is not dependent on historical claims.

I encourage readers to
read the original source
material for other religions and compare them with the New Testament.
There is
actually no comparison. Most of these alternate religions have died out
because
they are actually quite bizarre, whereas the story of Jesus of Nazareth
is
still coherent in our modern world.

By the way, I am still
fascinated by Brian's "Institute
for Research into Religions". I can't find anything about it on the
web. Brian,
does it have more than one member?

Kevin Rogers

JESUS Versus
MYTHOLOGY

Anonymous

"The demons mislead
mankind by imitating the things of the true God." (Justin Martyr
100-165)

(Investigator 129,
2009 November)

THE CLAIM

There are critics who
claim Jesus is myth fabricated by Christians who re-worked stories from
Egypt,
Babylon, Greece, Rome, India, etc.

Mythological
figures such as Hercules, Osiris, Mithra,
Perseus, Horus
and others
supposedly share such features with Jesus as:

Had a god for a father
and a virgin mother;

Birth announced by a
heavenly display;

Visited by wise men;

Life threatened after
birth by a tyrant;

Fasted 40 days;

A violent death;

Resurrected.

Virgin births are
attributed (among others) to:

In Egypt,
Horus from Isis*;

In Greece,
Adonis from Myrrha; Hercules from Alcmene*;

In India,
Buddah from Maya; Krishna
from Devaki;

In Mexico
Quetzalcoatl from Sochiquetzal;
Huitzilopochtli from Coatlicue;

In Persia,
the god Mithra*; and Zoroaster;

In Rome
Dionysus/Bacchus from Semele*;

In Scandinavian,
Balder from Frigga;

In Tibet,
Indra.

The * indicates birth
near December 25th. But December 25 as Jesus' birthday was
made
official by the Church and is not in the Bible – the Star of Bethlehem
probably
appeared mid-year. (Investigator 81)

HISTORY

A series of 19th
century writers publicized Biblical/Pagan parallels and claimed
Christianity
fabricated Jesus from Pagan mythology. For example:

Godfrey Higgins
(1771-1834);

Mitchell Logan (1842) The
Christian Mythology Unveiled;

Kelsey Graves (1875) The
World's Sixteen Crucified Saviours;

Doane, T.E.
(1882) Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other
Religions;

Graves
often
ignored
chronology and geography in assessing what caused what, and fabricated
much of
his material. The Britannica says crucifixion was practiced "from about
the 6th
century BC to the 4th century AD." Documentation for Graves' "sixteen crucified saviours"
remains elusive. Most just lived on; several died by arrow, burning, or
bleeding. Some have cycles of death and rebirth instead of one
resurrection.

20th
century critics expanded the 19th-century framework. For
example:

Robertson, J.M. (1903) Pagan
Christs;

Drews, A.
(1865-1935) The
Christ Myth (1910);

Dujardin, E.
(1938) Ancient History of the God Jesus;

Jackson, J.J. (1938) Christianity
Before Christ;

Kuhn, A.B. (1880-1963)
– Who is this
King of Glory? (1944);

Freke, T.
& Gandy, P.
(1999) The
Jesus Mysteries (1999).

Harpur, T.
(2004) The
Pagan Christ.

D.M. Murdock writing
as Acharya S. authored:

The Christ Conspiracy:
The Greatest Story Ever Sold (1999);

Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled (2004);

Who Was Jesus?
Fingerprints of The Christ (2007)

Christ in Egypt:
The Horus-Jesus Connection (2009).

Thomas Harpur – Canadian
theologian and journalist –
claims the
essential ideas of Christianity came from Egyptian mythology. Harpur
does not cite contemporary Egyptologists
or primary
sources but depends on Higgins, Kuhn and Massey. He calls Kuhn a
"genius"
whereas Kuhn was a high school teacher who advocated Theosophy and
mostly
self-published.

Harpur writes:
"The 180
similarities which the scholar Gerald Massey found between the Egyptian
Christ,
Horus, and the Jesus of the Gospels, are
there for
all to read in Massey's two-volume shocker, Ancient
Egypt: The Light of the World and in
his The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ."

Acharya
parallels the life of
Christ with Krishna, Buddha, Mithra,
Horus,
Adonis,
Quetzalcoatl, etc and claims the similarities reflect a common source,
the myth
of the sun-god.

However, since Rome
had no contact with America,
any
Christ/Quetzalcoatl
parallels were either copied from Christianity after the Spaniards
arrived, or
originated independently.

All the above critics
rarely
quote alleged parallels directly from Pagan texts – they give their
interpretations instead, or cite each other.

In #74 I listed
correlations between Horus and Hitler. My
correlations were "off the cuff" yet sufficient to be surprising.

Clearly, to declare
established history myth on the basis of parallels is false reasoning.
To argue "Kennedy is recycled myth based on Lincoln",
or "Hitler is myth based on Horus", is
stupid.

Compare any
two people: Probably they "Went to
school". Check whether the schools were in the same city or have any
other
similarity. If no further parallels are noticed we still have "Went to
school".
Investigate also the two persons' travels, friends, interests,
experiences,
medical history, accomplishments, families, beliefs, environments, etc.
Did
both write? If yes then list "Writer". If both wrote for Investigator
– good
the odds are millions to one! If not, we still
have "Writer". See the trick? Just stop the comparison at that level of
detail
where the similarity stops.

The concepts of
"similarity" and "parallel lives" are subjective. The rules of logic
don't tell
us when "similarities" are relevant and constitute evidence for
fabrication. Comparison
of any two people would generate thousands of similarities – the number
is
limited only by one's imagination and time.

REFUTATION
2

The "copycat" thesis
is absent in standard modern works such as:

The Religions of
Ancient Egypt
(1949);

The Religion of the
Ancient East (1959);

New Larousse
Encyclopedia of Mythology (1968);

Egyptian Mythology
1968;

Mythology An
Illustrated Encyclopedia (1980);

Egypt
The
World of the Pharoahs (1998).

The Sacred
Texts Archives DVD-ROM has the
text of thousands of ancient myths. I checked the DVD for Horus/Jesus
parallels in The Egyptian Book of the
Dead and Legends of the Gods
(translated 1895 & 1912) but found very few, therefore suspect many
have
been made up.

Horus is an
Egyptian Christ
and his mother, Isis, the forerunner of Mary;

Horus had a
virgin birth,
was a fisher of men and had twelve disciples;

The letters KRST
appear on Egyptian coffins and signify
Christ.

Professor Kenneth A.
Kitchen of Liverpool pointed out that Kuhn, Higgins and Massey are not
mentioned in M. L. Bierbrier's Who Was Who in
Egyptology (1995) or I.B. Pratt's bibliography on Ancient Egypt
(1925/1942).

Ron Leprohan, Professor of
Egyptology at Toronto,
pointed
out that "sa" means "son" in ancient
Egyptian and "iu" means "to come" but the
name "Iusa"
did not exist. "KRST" is the Egyptian word for "burial" and is
unconnected to
the Greek "Christos".

The Egyptologists
regarded the attempt to source the story of Christ's birth in Egyptian
religion
as bogus.

Most 19th
century copycat theorists were likewise fringe writers ignored by
learned
societies that dealt with antiquity.

REFUTATION
3

To establish NT
reliance on Pagan myth, critics would need to demonstrate quotes from
Pagan
texts in the Bible but have failed.

Some copycat
ideologues therefore surmise that Christians acquired pagan myths not
from
texts but by social interaction, and reworked the myths to make them
palatable
to Jews. The idea of resurrection, however, occurs a dozen times in the
Old
Testament (OT) and Christ's death and resurrection was foretold therein
– see Investigator 120. So why not leave out
the supposed social connection and conclude that Christians interpreted
the OT?

Judaism accepted one
God and would have notice any incorporation of Paganism into
Christianity – but
Jewish criticism didn't take this approach.

The Bible teaches an exclusivist
faith, warns against
syncretism (Colossians 2:8), and insists on one God, one Saviour. Roman Empire mystery cults, in
contrast, were non-exclusive and members could join
many cults.

The oldest
still-existing NT documents are 2nd-century. But the oldest
available documents of Pagan religions are often much later. The
beliefs of a
Pagan cult described in, for example, a 10th century
document may
therefore differ to its 1st-century beliefs since sectarian
doctrine
sometimes changes quickly. This raises the probability that it's the
Pagans who
did the plagiarizing!

REFUTATION
4

Scholars and critics
often adopt biblical terminology to describe non-Christian myths and
rituals.
This establishes a conceptual link but is misleading:

Many religions
practiced ritual bathing but it's not baptism, or communal meals but
it's not "the Lord's supper", or had a "saviour"
but different
to the biblical "messiah".

The mistake is like
applying the term "President" to ancient kings – such mislabeling could
generate misleading implications.

HORUS

Horus in
Egyptian mythology
was the son of the gods Isis and Osiris. Acharya, relying on Massey,
claims 200 parallels
with
Jesus. Egyptian texts on the Sacred Texts
DVD lack many of them including:

Born of
the virgin
Isis-Meri on
December 25th;

Birth announced by a
star, angels and three wise men;

Taught in the Temple
at age 12;

Was baptized, the
baptizer later beheaded;

Had 12 disciples;

Exorcised demons;

Walked on water;

Was called "Iusa,"
the "ever-becoming son" and "Holy Child";

Called "the KRST," or
"Anointed One;"

Raised "El-Azar-us "from the
dead;

Transfigured on the
Mount;

Crucified between two
thieves, buried three days, and
resurrected;

Called "Son of Man,"
"Lamb of God,"
"Word made flesh";

Would reign for 1000
years.

"Meri"
(Egyptian word for "beloved") was not a name but a description
unconnected to "Mary" in the Bible.

Some similarities rely
on word games:

"Horus
raised Osirus from the dead. He was
referred to as
‘the Asar,'... Translated into Hebrew,
this is ‘El-Asar.' The Romans added the
prefix ‘us' to indicate a male
name, producing ‘Elasarus.' Over time, the
‘E' was
dropped and ‘s' became ‘z,' producing ‘Lazarus.'"

Harpur writes:
"Herodotus,
the ‘father of history'…says that the priests at Thebes
told him…that the great gods of Egypt
existed over 17,000 years earlier in the oral history. These deities
included Iu-em-hetep, the coming bringer
of peace. The name Iu is basic to the
later name Yeshua/Jesus,
as well as to Isaac, Isaiah, and many others."

Actually "Isaac" means
"laughter", and "Jesus" corresponds to the Hebrew "Yehoshua"
and means "Jehovah is salvation" as does "Isaiah". Drawing connections
with
supposed oral history going back 17,000 years is nonsensical. The Bible
on
Christ's resurrection gives definite times, places, names and other
details
that are still checkable and was accepted doctrine before 100CE.

VIRGIN
BIRTH

Isis
was wife
to Osiris without any claim she was a
virgin. Osiris was killed and dismembered
but magically reassembled
by Isis who then had intercourse with the body and produced Horus.
A story of miraculous conception, but not of a virgin birth!

Virgin births are
attributed to Buddha and Krishna. But
Buddha's
mother was married, therefore unlikely a virgin; and Krishna
was 8th-born!

Most "virgin births"
in Pagan stories were stories of gods impregnating women by sexual
intercourse.
For example, Dionysius in Greece:

"Semele
[a king's daughter] begged Zeus to show himself to her in his Olympian
splendour. She was unable to endure the dazzling
brilliance
of her divine lover… Zeus gathered up the infant and, as it was not yet
ready
to be born, enclosed it in his own thigh. When the time was come he
drew it
forth…" (New Larousse Encyclopedia, p. 157)

The nearest to "virgin
birth" might be the Greek deity Adonis "Born of a tree into which his
mother
had transformed herself..." (Ibid p. 81)

KRISHNA

The most numerous
parallels are between Jesus and the Hindu god Krishna.
De Kretser (2009) refers to "historians" –
actually Graves got the ball rolling
– who "found 346 points of
comparison". I found a website which claims "346 Striking Analogies"
but lists
only 133.

The Sacred
Texts DVD includes The Vishnu Purana
(translated 1840 by H.H. Wilson) with Krishna's
birth described in Book IV. Wilson
says: "It is highly probable, that of the present popular forms of the
Hindu
religion, none assumed their actual state earlier than…in the eighth or
ninth century."

There's more about Krishna in the Bhagavadgita
which date from the 2nd century AD.

According to the NT,
the first Christian converts included Jewish visitors from Mesopotamia
and Persia.
These would have spread the Christian message in the East when they
returned
home. Within 30 years Jesus was known "in the whole world". (Colossians
1:6)
The Apostle Thomas, according to tradition, preached in India.
The Council of Niceaincluded
a
bishop who represented the
churches of Persia
and India.
Persia
banned Christianity c.325CE which suggests Christians were numerous
enough to
be considered a threat.

(325CE)

The late completion of
Hindu texts and Christianity's expansion eastwards, suggest Hinduism
copied from Christianity. The
book Christ Versus Krishna (1883) is
on the Internet and argues: "The Brahmins…tampered the sacred records
[and]
introduced a character whom they name Krishna,
who was presented to have…performed deeds similar to those which Jesus
Christ
performed."

OTHERS

Textual evidence for
other alleged Christ-like forerunners is even more tenuous than the
above.
One-time scholarly support for Baal (Canaanite deity) as paralleling
the death
and resurrection of Jesus has evaporated.

Mithra was an
Iranian deity
whose worship spread west and rivaled Christianity in the 3rd
and 4th
century Roman Empire. The originator
here of
parallels with Christ was Franz Cumont
(1868-1947)
Professor at Ghent
who authored The Mysteries of Mithra
(1902). However, texts of Roman Mithraism
postdate the NT and Cumont's work has lost
credibility.

SUPERNATURAL ORIGIN?

The Bible presents the
"Serpent" or "Satan" as the "deceiver of the whole world", the first
and
greatest liar. (John 8:44; Revelation 12:9)
Genesis 3 foretells a "seed" or descendant who would eventually
crush
the "Serpent". Since no human could accomplish such a thing the
prophecy
implies a combined human/god origin of that "seed" – hence a virgin
birth. This
doctrine, this expectation is, according to Genesis, as old as humanity.

We have then a
scenario whereby a deceitful, supernatural entity inspires numerous
miracle-birth stories even in places unconnected by trade such as America, SE Asia and Europe,
to distract people from the truth. (For evidence of the supernatural
based on
anomalies in gravity, "Flatland", other dimensions, and unexplained
psychology
see Investigator 126; 125; 104; 102.)

CONCLUSION

The copycat claim is a
conspiracy theory. It's ignored by mainstream scholars because:

Copycat theorists
rarely quote the ancient texts – they give their interpretations or
quote one another;

To overturn history
with lists of subjective "parallels" is false reasoning;

Many parallels have no
basis – they were made up;

Applying Christian
terminology to Pagan myths establishes misleading conceptual links – in
effect it assumes what has to be proven;